Examining the effects of disturbances within marine urban communities can shed light on their assembly rules and invasion processes. The effects of physical disturbance, through the removal of dominant native habitat-builders, were investigated in the recolonization of disturbed patches and colonization of plates on pier pilings, in a Chilean port. On pilings, disturbance substantially affected community structure after 3 months, although it slowly converged across treatments after 10 months. On plates, cryptogenic and non-indigenous species richness increased with removal severity, which was not observed in natives. Opportunistic taxa took advantage of colonizing at an early successional stage, illustrating a competition-colonization trade-off, although indirect effects might be at play (e.g. trophic competition or selective predation). Recovery of the habitat-builders then occurred at the expense of cryptogenic and non-indigenous taxa. Whether natives could continue winning against increasing propagule and colonization pressures in marine urban habitats deserves further attention. The interactions between disturbance and biological invasions herein experimentally shown in situ contribute to our understanding of multiple changes imposed by marine urbanization in a growing propagule transport network.We examined a disease outbreak of the fan mussel, Pinna nobilis (L.), in the Alfacs Bay (South Ebro Delta, Spain) during a period of two years in three zones exposed to a summer salinity gradient resulting from agricultural freshwater discharges and distance to the open sea. Long-term monitoring was also conducted in Fangar Bay (North Ebro Delta), featuring lower salinities and no evidence of disease. Results showed that the salinity gradient of Alfacs Bay (37.4-35.7) was associated to cumulative mortality (100% near the mouth, 43% in middle regions, and 13% in inner regions), thus hindering the spread of pathogens. Young specimens showed to be more tolerant to disease than large adults but become vulnerable over time. In Fangar Bay, lower salinities (30.5-33.5) prevented the disease but individuals were highly vulnerable to Storm Gloria which caused 60% mortality in 3 weeks, and ~100% in 6 weeks.Within the coastal marine environment, the increased presence of artificial habitat can have negative impacts on the functioning of marine communities. Artificial structures provide a novel, hard surface for the colonization and growth of a variety of marine species and disproportionally favor introduced species. With the global rise in hardened shorelines, it is imperative to examine the ecological processes that occur within these habitats to those occurring in natural habitats. Here, we compared habitat differences in fouling community composition of different successional ages as well as the impact of predation on those communities. Specifically, we investigated how communities differed with respect to natural (seagrass beds) and artificial (docks) habitats and then exposed previously caged communities to predators to examine prey-specific effects within each habitat and on different aged communities. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Aloxistatin.html We found that habitat was a good predictor of community structure including both total species richness and introduced species richness higher in artificial habitats. We expected predators to increase available space allowing increased species co-existence, however, this was not the case. Predators in both habitats reduced richness despite having a strong impact on the percent cover of dominant groups. Predators also reduced introduced species richness, particularly in artificial habitats. Artificial structures are an important pathway of success for introduced species and results here show the importance of biotic resistance within these habitats, potentially limiting the spread of introduced species into natural habitat. Overall, species found within the different habitats could be predicted based on life history traits and predators did not increase the similarity of communities between habitats though still acted in a comparable way, reducing the dominant groups.As a new member of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, black phosphorus (BP) has been considered as efficient photothermal therapy (PTT) agents owing to its excellent photothermal efficiency and biodegradability. Herein, a multifunctional nanoplatform based on black phosphorus nanosheets (BP NSs) was developed for chemo-photothermal synergistic cancer therapy. The BP NSs were successfully prepared by a liquid exfoliation technique. Doxorubicin (DOX), as a model drug, was loaded into the cavity of poly (amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer using thin film hydration method. Then, PAMAM@DOX was coated on the surface of BP NSs using an electrostatic adsorption method that combined bath sonication with magnetic stirring. Hyaluronic acid (HA) was also modified onto the BP NS-PAMAM@DOX through electrostatic adsorption. PAMAM and HA layer could effectively isolate BP NSs from water and air to improve physiological stability. BP NSs and BP NS-PAMAM@DOX-HA were characterized by particle size, zeta potential, morphology, UV-vis-NIR absorption spectra, stability, photothermal performance and photothermal stability. This nanosystem exhibited a good pH and near infrared (NIR) dual-responsive drug release property. In addition, the obtained BP NS-PAMAM@D OX-HA nanocomposites possessed excellent PTT efficiency both in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro cell experiments suggested that the targeted BP NS-PAMAM@DOX-HA presented greater cytotoxicity and higher cellular uptake efficiency. Tumor xenograft model was established in BALB/C mice. The therapeutic effect of BP NS-PAMAM@DOX-HA was further augmented under 808 nm laser irradiation, displaying superior antitumor effect in comparison with chemotherapy or PTT alone. Such a biodegradable BP NS-based platform provide new insights for the rational design of PTT-based combinational cancer therapy.The release of inflammatory chemokines leads to the formation of chemokine gradients that result in the directed migration of immune cells to the site of injury. In this process, cells respond to soluble gradients (chemotaxis) as well as to immobilised gradients (haptotaxis). Surface-bound chemokine gradients are mostly presented by endothelial cells and supported by glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), such as heparan sulfate, involving the GAG binding site of chemokines. Microfluidic devices have been used to analyse cell migration along soluble chemokine gradients, as these devices allow the generation of stable gradients with resolutions in the range of microns. To immobilise well-controlled soluble gradients of interleukin-8 (CXCL8), an inflammatory chemokine, we developed a simple procedure using a heparin-coated PDMS-microfluidic device. We used these immobilised gradients for migration experiments with CXCL8-responsive THP-1 cells and confirmed directed cell migration. This setup might be useful for the examination of factors that may alter chemotaxis and haptotaxis as well as synergistic and antagonistic effects of other soluble and immobilised chemokines.